Tuesday, September 25, 2012

"Lawless"

Surprisingly fun movie from the director of The Road...that just doesn't sound right for some reason.

I’ve been
following the careers of director John Hillcoat and writer/musician NickCave since I saw their phenomenal
film, The Proposition.Hillcoat
followed that film with The Road which, while divisive, I found to be very
engaging, if not extremely depressing.The Proposition was certainly depressing as well, so I was surprised
to find that Hillcoat and Cave’s latest collaboration, Lawless, was a fun
movie.Don’t get me wrong, Hillcoat’s
previous films are enjoyable, but they are miles away from fun.

Lawless
lends itself to a fun tone because of the true story/legend of the Bondurant
family of Tennessee during the
Prohibition years.The story of the
Bondurant brothers is certainly violent, but it’s handled in a folksy,
old-fashioned tall tale kind of way that left me with a smile on my face.The story is a lengthy tale of a backwoods Virginia
bootlegging family that had to deal with everything except actual law
enforcement.The setting of the film is
truly lawless, as the cops seem to be much more villainous than the criminals.

The cops as
the bad guys routine is nothing new.If
anything, Lawless makes it much simpler and removes any trepidation from the
viewer.Typically, when I find myself
rooting for the lawbreaker of a film, I have to stop and deal with the fact
that I am rooting for someone who is causing others harm (the first seasons of
“Breaking Bad” come to mind).Lawless
can sidestep that because of the law that is being broken.Most people, at this point, find Prohibition
to be a ridiculous moment in our history.It didn’t stop anyone from drinking and it gave rise to mass crime and
corruption.With that mentality, you can
easily look to the cops as problems rather than solutions.

The
Bondurant boys of the film are just making their way in Franklin County,
Tennessee.It’s just that making their
way involves making moonshine.In a
typical movie, the main issue would be cops busting up the stills.That’s still the an issue, but the cops are
only after the Bondurants because they don’t want to cut a deal with a mobster
who wants to consolidate all off the alcohol he sells in the big cities.The leader of the Bondurant clan, Forrest
(Tom Hardy), is stubborn to say the least and decides to take the family down a
different path, and brothers Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf) have
to accept that.Creepy crooked cop
(hello, alliteration) Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) represents the forces
attempting to stop the Bondurants.What
follows is less backwoods war and more lighthearted, folksy goings-on scattered
with extreme violence and surprising comedy.

Tom Hardy
creates most of the comedy, and violence for that matter, even if he is not the
focus of the film (unfortunately).He
mumbles and grunts through each scene and it makes for some very funny
moments.He is also a very imposing
character; this is the same guy who played Bane in The Dark Knight
Rises.But because he is a man of
grunts rather than words, the movie relies on Jack to progress the story.

Shia LaBeouf
does a fine job as Jack; it’s just that he is not nearly as interesting or
talented as Tom Hardy.This is certainly
a step up from Transformers, though.He plays a typical LaBeouf character as Jack wants to rush headfirst
into everything and prove himself to anyone who is willing to pay
attention.Unfortunately for all
involved, Guy Pearce is the person paying attention.

Pearce (a
Hillcoat regular) livens up the screen with his portrayal of a strange,
sadistic big city cop.Every scene
featuring Pearce is cringe-inducing, but he manages to keep it from becoming a
moustache twirling villain role.He is
definitely the guy to root against, but he’s too weird too hate outright.

Mia
Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain (the woman who is in every other movie now)
round out the cast as the love interests of two of the brothers.They are a bit more than simple love
interests, but they get the least to do in the film.

Gary Oldman
is also in the film, but I only mention him because I thought it was strange
how he was plastered all over the marketing of the film yet his role is little
more than a cameo.His few scenes are
great, though.A little Oldman is better
than none at all, I suppose.

The real
star of the film is the writing.This
could have been a by-the-numbers “root for the outlaws” movie.There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s
been done so many times.Instead, the
writers (and reality, since this is based on a true story) injected some tall
tale humor into the mix.I don’t want to
ruin anything, so I’ll just say that there are a few moments in which severe
violence happens and the resolution of said violence is not what you might
expect.It makes the movie slightly
ridiculous a few times, but it is a welcome kind of ridiculous.I laughed aloud multiple times watching this
film, and I believe the filmmakers wanted that response.

Overall,
Hillcoat and Cave have created an interesting film.It’s much lighter than their previous
collaboration, but if anyone needed to lighten up for a next film, it was these
two.So check it out when it comes out
on video, because this is about as inviting and crowd-pleasing as Hillcoat and
Cave are going to get…and that is definitely a compliment.